Character Discussion: Harry (2)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 120783


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Hans Andréa <ibotsjfvxfst at y...> 
wrote:

As part of message 120719, Hans wrote:

> a new soul is born: Harry James Potter. His coming has been 
> prophesied from the beginning. This prophecy applies to every 
> seeker whose heart is defeated by the repeated suffering of 
> thousands of turns of the wheel.


> And at his birth a new star shines in the east.

and, as part of message 120781, he wrote:

> When Harry, the new immortal soul, is born in the
> heart of the seeker for the ineffable indefinable
> causeless cause, a new life-force enters his blood
> stream. 

> A person in whom Harry is born will
> wonder what's happening to him or her. 
 
> At this stage let me just reiterate the obvious:
> neither Christian Rosycross nor Harry Potter are or
> were real people, or meant to portray real people.
> They are personifications. Harry personifies the new
> soul in a seeker whose heart is open. Christian
> Rosycross personifies the seeker himself. Hence the
> invitation is not a physical invitation. It's an
> invitation written in the heart. 

Geoff:
I do not want to get too deeply involved in a theological discussion 
as it could lead OT.

However, I agree completely with you that Harry is not a real person. 
But what concerns me is that you are distorting basic Christian 
teaching to underpin your argument.

To become a Christian, we do not have a new soul personified by 
someone like Harry. Our soul is affected because the Spirit of God 
challenges us to see the truth of Christ in his resurrection power as 
God incarnate and, if we accept that challenge, the Spirit enters our 
lives and we become a changed person.

Harry cannot represent that change because he, like us, is weak, 
changeable, sinful (if I dare use the word) and, even in his better 
moments, falling short of self-imposed targets. Just like us.  
Hopefully, we aim for perfection but do not achieve it because of our 
failings.

As I have said before (probably to the point of boredom) is that we 
can see ourselves in Harry; an everyman on a journey through life. He 
has high moments - winning his first match at Quidditch, saving 
Sirius, conjuring his Patronus; the flip side is that he has his low 
moments - believing that he is responsible for Sirius' death, his 
anger overtopping his emotions, the debilitating effect of contact 
with Dementors and so on...

He now sees the challenge of needing to defeat Voldemort and is 
trying to work towards that. We should see the challenge of needing 
to defeat the evil around and within us and try to work towards that.